Tagged With national reconnaissance office

The NROL-42 spy satellite was launched atop an Atlas V rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base early on Sunday morning, Eastern time. And while we don't know anything about the tech specs or what it will be spying on, it's a safe bet to say that it's part of the most advanced spying apparatus the world has ever known.

What's the first thing you think about when you think of NASA's space shuttle program? Sally Ride? Spinning in microgravity? The Challenger explosion? That episode of The Simpsons? You might not think about the US military and intelligence community launching spy satellites, but you should. NASA's shuttles were designed specifically to carry US spy satellites to orbit. And we got our hands on a newly declassified document about the top secret plans.

Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

If you're one of the United States' most important spy agencies, you'd probably have a pretty strict list of what documents to keep secret, right? Well, judging from my latest FOIA request, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) might just be winging it.